The Long History

the racing pisshorses began in 1994 with jj and
ryan, and geoff playing guitar. JJ spent all summer calling ryan and geoff's
houses getting them to practice. They finally performed for people in
jj's garage in october and december..after that geoff's enthusiasm expired
so he was booted carrying his amplifier, blown out courtesy of jj and
eric's trip. Then they played as a 2 piece with jj playing bass (occasionally
guitar) and ryan playing drums, they would also play as jj playing drums
and ryan playing guitar. They had many obnoxious shows at various coffee
houses, gymnasiums, basements, and garage of jj's in which they were completely
wrapped in music they played. Having fun was priority. They made a seven
inch record in july 1995...the grandparents
tape was made in january 1996...and
bipolar freezerburn fest was oct. 1996...these are the defining recordings
of eeffoc & maps. In december of 1996 they enlisted drew ziegler of the
vermin spit as drummer. They recorded
a lot of miscellaneous songs with drew at imsa itl/tvpl studio 2 months
later..they played 2 shows with drew, but he didn't show up to the third
one.....this 'third one..' in july '97, was a show with 'thank
goodness for plotka' held at tiamat records in peoria, illinois. Plotka
was a band with mike richards in it. now, mike had gotten ahold of the
grandparents tape and the bipolar freezerburn
fest. mike had written a letter to jj, expressing his enjoyment of the
mindset of the pisshorses' music and his desire to collaborate. in june
of '97, ryan and jj and mike and bandmate jeremy drove to a barn out in
the country and each respective band played for one another.. ryan and
jj dug mike's drumming right away. so, the pisshorses hooked up a show.
since drew left the band, jj and ryan asked mike if he would drum at the
following week's show. that show got cancelled, but jj, ryan and mike
practiced a few hours in october and played their first show together
on Halloween. it was the first in several shows that were very crazy and
haphazard. they would improvise a song or five at every show. This halloween
show erupted in cacophany of human collisions. JJ and ryan ended up rolling
around on the floor and mike jumped up on the pool tables and ran around
beating a hi hat cymbal. this show defined the psychotic bliss of this
period. They later played in metamora with some big fancy peoria bands
and enjoyed akward silences between songs...until jj would burp loooudly
into the microphone and speak jibberish in german. A fun night for a superiorly
snobby crowd.

Well, that was awhile ago.Ryan left the band after the
summer of 1999. He did help record "Bartered Ether" from "The
Salamander Slithers" in early 2000. He's off studying to become a
music teacher.

After Ryan left, Randy S. from rebekah's
tape joined the band, playing bass. He played a couple shows with
us, in March and June of 2000 and January of 2001 (scary
gutter bar). He left sometime after that. Then we recruited Cory to
play a couple shows in summer 2001 in Spring Valley and Peru, and a couple
shows in June 2002. We played at the PCW in Spring Valley in the summer
of 2001, in their wrestling ring in 100 degree heat. A crazy but full
blown performance. Everything's been sporadic for awhile, but the intent
is still there.